Re: Carew castle, West Wales, at sunset

This is a good series, I just hope you meant it when you said C&C welcome

Before I start, this is a good series and due to your high level of expertise, these points are arguably quite minor, but they are things I'd want raised if I were posting images for critique.

OK here goes;
#1: at 700px size, I can't suggest anything to improve it, I think sharpening further would just increase jpg artefacts.

#2: Two 'silly' things; there's a hair in top right corner and a dust bunny (or passing insect) a little to left of centre over sky.
One subjective thing; the posts in the water (see next shot) distract in this one because they are sharp and break up the softer edge of the reflected skyline. I doubt you could do anything about this at shooting time (i.e. you couldn't get high enough or low enough), so that only leaves cloning. One other suggestion is to put this shot later in the series, so we subconciously already know what they are (e.g. because we saw them better 'earlier' in what is currently #3). It was trying to figure them out that distracted me as much as anything. Does that make sense?

#3: I like the depth of the different haze layers at receding distances, if I am exceptionally nit-picky, I might query whether the central house/mill is quite vertical? A decent shot, as Donald says. I like the WB on this one.

#4: Whereas, the WB on this one looks a little too cool, especially presented next to #3, given that it shot from a similar direction, it may well naturally have changed like that over time, but in a series; 1-2-3-4 its quite a jump. Bear in mind I may well be over-sensitive to this as I know it is something I do quite often myself I found myself mentally building a 'panoramic' from #3 and #4 and that made it worse

#5: This is my favourite, possibly because it's the kind of shot I always forget to take as I have too much mental focus on the castle and I have yet to seriously attempt a B&W myself (.... an idea has just formed)
It looks quite a bit sharper than the others, but that could be related to the B&W conversion having removed all that distracting 'colour' stuff

EDIT: In hindsight (having read it over), a lot of my babble is the psicology (sp?) of presenting a series of images than critique on the images themselves

Re: Carew castle, West Wales, at sunset

A good set but the last image stands out for me, probably because my frequent visits to castells Cymreig in the 70's were in mono. At least that is the way my memory processes these experiences

Steve

I had too much el vino yesterday, so it's probably the 'hair of the dog'

I agree, a lot of castle shots look better in mono, probably as there often isn't much colour in them to start with if it's built of grey stone. Perhaps it also adds to the original grim nature of castles.

Re: Carew castle, West Wales, at sunset

This is a good series, I just hope you meant it when you said C&C welcome

Before I start, this is a good series and due to your high level of expertise, these points are arguably quite minor, but they are things I'd want raised if I were posting images for critique.

That's fine Dave. I need to improve just the same as everyone else. Any C&C is welcome.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

#2: Two 'silly' things; there's a hair in top right corner and a dust bunny (or passing insect) a little to left of centre over sky.
One subjective thing; the posts in the water (see next shot) distract in this one because they are sharp and break up the softer edge of the reflected skyline. I doubt you could do anything about this at shooting time (i.e. you couldn't get high enough or low enough), so that only leaves cloning. One other suggestion is to put this shot later in the series, so we subconciously already know what they are (e.g. because we saw them better 'earlier' in what is currently #3). It was trying to figure them out that distracted me as much as anything. Does that make sense?

Yes, the hair. It was on all my shots. I had an eyebrow hair that was crossing my vision. I pulled it out as I was walking along, and guess where it landed! Could only happen to me. Agree about the shot order.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

#3: I like the depth of the different haze layers at receding distances, if I am exceptionally nit-picky, I might query whether the central house/mill is quite vertical? A decent shot, as Donald says. I like the WB on this one.

Yes, I think slightly anti-clockwise.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

#4: Whereas, the WB on this one looks a little too cool, especially presented next to #3, given that it shot from a similar direction, it may well naturally have changed like that over time, but in a series; 1-2-3-4 its quite a jump. Bear in mind I may well be over-sensitive to this as I know it is something I do quite often myself I found myself mentally building a 'panoramic' from #3 and #4 and that made it worse

Yes, I turned the WB cooler in CS4, and I shouldn't have. Here's another version.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

#5: This is my favourite, possibly because it's the kind of shot I always forget to take as I have too much mental focus on the castle and I have yet to seriously attempt a B&W myself (.... an idea has just formed)
It looks quite a bit sharper than the others, but that could be related to the B&W conversion having removed all that distracting 'colour' stuff